You may have already heard a few appalling facts about food waste but just in case you haven’t, here are a few tidbits of information to catch you up on the issue.

-We throw away 165 billion dollars worth of food per year in America. That’s more than the budgets for America’s national parks, public libraries, federal prisons, veteran’s health care, the FBI, and the FDA combined.

-About 50 million of our 317 million Americans are food insecure yet we produce enough food to feed over 500 million Americans.

-To create just the amount of food that ends up in the landfills we waste enough water to meet the domestic water needs of every American citizen.

Even with these mind-blowing statistics you probably still need to see it to believe it. That is where I come in.

This weekend I arrived in New York City from my second bike ride across America living on food from grocery store dumpsters. On my first ride dumpster diving across America, about 70% of my diet came from dumpsters, totaling up to about 280 pounds of food over 4,700 miles of cycling.

This is what a typical dumpster score looked like:

This time around, halfway across the country, I vowed to eat exclusively out of grocery store dumpsters until I reached New York City. For the 1,000 miles and seven weeks of riding from Madison, Wisconsin to New York City, you could have spotted me in any of 300 or so dumpsters across America. I admit I slipped up on my vow a few times. Once when a brownie was set down in front of me in Baltimore, another time over some freshly popped popcorn, and a few times I picked a fresh tomato or leafy green out of a garden. Plus, I used oil and some herbs for cooking when visiting friends in their homes. Other than that I ate like a dumpster king and gained five pounds even with all of the time spent on my bike.

Here’s what a guy who eats straight from the dumpster looks like:

I’m not just dining from the dumpster to meet my needs though. I’m doing this to inspire America to stop throwing away food. My interactions with whomever I crossed paths with helped them to see the food waste fiasco firsthand, but still I said I would help YOU see it to believe it.

That is where photos from my public demonstrations come into play. In eight cities along the tour I went out dumpster diving, usually just for one night, and set up my find in a public park the next day. Many people were shocked by what I showed them and even more were angry, not at me, but at the waste of our society when millions of Americans are hungry.

I had just a few days at most in each city to pull these fiascos together. Here is what my friend Dane and I managed to scrounge up in Madison, Wisconsin in two days:

I found a volunteer via social media with a vehicle to help in each city since I couldn’t carry all of the food on my bicycle. This was what we gathered in Chicago, Illinois:

None of the volunteers even had dumpster diving experience and I was completely new to the dumpster scene in each city. In Detroit, Michigan we started diving the morning of the event and the car was filled with this in 2 hours:

In Cleveland, Ohio we spent seven hours at the dumpsters the night before the event and brought this food to Cleveland Public Square. It was 90 degrees that day so much of the food we found in the dumpsters was spoiled. This is just the good stuff that we pulled out:

In Lancaster, Pennsylvania we had two vehicles and we hit about ten dumpsters between the two teams. This is what we took home in four hours.

Two days later I rolled up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 9:00 PM, started diving an hour later, and was sound asleep with this score by 1:00 AM.

And finally I rolled into New York City, where I was greeted by the people behind Freegan.info. In one night of walking around the streets of Manhattan we scrounged together this fiasco.

The food was still very high quality stuff but I never intended to even give it away. I just wanted to show people what we are wasting. But then people started to take the food and that made the mission all the better. Guys like David were so happy to eat and to share it with their friends:

Between all of the demonstrations that I hosted we ended up giving away over $10,000 worth of food and fed well over 500 people. To me that is proof of how good the food is that we are throwing away.

I’ve learned that I can roll up in nearly any city across America and collect enough food to feed 100’s of people in a matter of one night. The only thing that limited me was the size of the vehicle I had to transport it. My experience shows me that grocery store dumpsters are being filled to the brim with perfectly good food every day in nearly every city across America, all while children at school are too hungry to concentrate on their studies.

My intentions with these photos are to help you to get an idea of the scale of this issue. Even still these are just photos. Seeing it in person is a whole different story. So I encourage you to go to your grocery store and do something a little different from your normal routine. I want you to walk around to the back of the store, find their dumpster, and take a look inside. You don’t have to take any of the food home with you. You don’t have to get in the dumpster either. Just take a peek and see this problem for yourself. The dumpster may be locked or it may have just been emptied so check out a few places if needed. The first time you see a dumpster full of food your life could be changed forever. If you feel inclined to be a part of the solution I encourage you to photograph or video the wasted food you find and spread it on social media using #DonateNotDump. Tweet it at the store and let them know that we are not going to stand for their waste anymore.

With that action in mind you should be versed in this a little bit more before you hit the dumpsters. Our message to the grocery stores is that we want them to stop dumping their excess food and start donating it to non-profits so it can be distributed to people in need. Through my hands on experience and research I have found that it is a win-win situation for grocery stores to do this. They are protected from lawsuits by the Good Samaritan Food Act, they get tax write offs, they spend less on dumpster fees, and most importantly, they are doing what is right for their community when they donate their excess food! The most common excuse for not donating is that they fear liability but they are protected and according to a University of Arkansas study not a single lawsuit has ever been made against a grocery store that has donated food to a food rescue program.

Thousands of food rescue programs, such as City Harvest, Feeding America, and The Food Recovery Network are already feeding people across America and thousands of stores are already donating to these non-profits and food banks. However, it is a very small fraction of what could be done. We need more stores donating more often and we need them to compost what they can’t donate rather than sending it off to the landfill.

You don’t even have to peak into their dumpsters if you don’t want to. Share this article with supermarkets or simply talk to the manager while you are at the store and let them know that it is important to you, their customers. Humans with hearts run these stores and we can get them to change for the better! It’s up to us to hold them accountable to treat the environment and our hungry Americans with the respect they deserve.

I believe that we are at a tipping point for ending food waste and with citizen action we can solve this. The excitement inside me tells me that my generation will drastically reduce food waste in our time.

I agree, and believe that many stores/restaurants would gladly donate, but are bound by state and local laws ( maybe even Federal?) prohibiting the donating because of health reasons. So the place to start might be to review and change these restrictions.

Many times, my church would go to the local bakery at night and pick up garbage bags full of day old bakery and bring it back for parishioners. My parish is in a poor neighborhood of an urban city so the bakery items were always appreciated and we NEVER had unused items leftover.

It is worth noting that these are stores. Unfortunately, they are forced to overstock. One day they sell ten bags of tomato's, the next 100 bags. It's a tough thing to estimate. And noone would buy it if it is almost not good. So they're forced to dispose of the extra food before it gets rotten. Sadly, this is what customers expect of the stores. Everyone hates hearing that the thing they need is sold out, and everyone tries to take the freshest fruit or veg, leaving the older ones to get older.

I've recently watched a documentary about people complaining about the processes used to make food (farming etc.). The one problem with it is that they complain, complain, complain, but they don't give any alternatives to the problems. They showed one farmer, very proud, using traditional farming methods, but he simply doesn't produce enough food quickly enough to feed the nation (considering every farmer uses his methods).

So, what can we do? If we convince stores to keep their products a few days longer, general people will like that store less, as the products are less fresh. They will lose customers, and eventually they will lose to other businesses. If, instead, they give out the food instead of throwing it away, people will hear of this, and wait till after hours to get the still fresh food. They will lose customers, and fail. So… What alternative is there?

AH, maybe it was restaurants I was thinking about; they may not be allowed to donate leftovers. But I have heard that quite a few package leftovers carefully and place them neatly in or near the dumpsters knowing that they may be harvested by someone in need.

Elizabeth Dent until your being sued just because your "protected" won't stop people from trying and God forbid said food could be found to have made someone sick and die. Then the shit will hit the fan. In this day and age it almost doesn't pay to be nice to others. We own a food business in an area with a lot of homeless/ street walkers etc. We tried the nice route letting them fill their cups with water, giving them water cups, using the bathrooms. We had to stop it all. They started to fill cups with juice and soda if you weren't right there looking over their shoulders, needles and drugs left in the bathrooms, hanging around the store and soliciting custormers. So now we just say no. Hurts my heart at times but we have to do it.

Nancy, you're not just "protected", it's the law, as in voted on by congress that you're protected from lawsuits claiming negligence. Again, if you read fully, no lawsuit had EVER been brought against a grocery store since the law has existed, so your paranoia is unfounded. I'm sorry to hear about your particular situation, but I'm not sure it's applicable to the issue at hand of grocery store food waste.

I was told by Whole Foods, who dumps some pretty great stuff, that fear of litigation and laws that prohibit giving excess food due to an attempt to protect the public from poisoning mkw for the comination of evetns behind the dumping.

I've been surprised, when I moved to Boise, ID, to find there are HUGE resources for those in need of food assistance. There are enough food banks to feed a family for free every month. I attribute this to there being a large population of retired church-going people (most of the food banks are run by churches), who volunteer the time and effort necessary to make this happen – I don't think much food goes to waste here.

I was forced to go to the local food pantry during our economical down fall. I do appreciate the fact that I had somewhere to go for food rather then starve. I did get molded breads, swollen can goods, bad meat etc. It is difficult because you have to be oh so careful not get sick. Still, thank you food pantries for helping when I was in need.

Elizabeth Dent I've always felt this SHOULD be the case, I live in Washington too, yet it is my understanding that stores actually pour nasty smelling/tasting stuff on the food sometimes to discourage divers for fear of someone getting sick and suing them. Can you direct me to a link or something that shows stores are protected by the Good Samaritan law?I thought that was only when they donate through a food bank, like second harvest. It is a good idea, but I have been told Dumpster diving is illegal trespassing and the stores are supposed to do what they can to prevent it due to lawsuit fears.

One of my favorite stores has a section in some departments where food (produce, meat, bakery and General grocery, not dairy for some reason) get slashed price wise to about cost the day before the sell by date. I always check these sections first …and it draws me into the store.

We volunteered at our local food bank. There were some stale baked goods, but they NEVER would have allowed swollen cans or moldy anything. Whoever was in charge was not inspecting things properly. All the food we offered was just as good as anything at Grocery discount.

In Australia, supermarkets all did this and then a change happened. The cosy if throwing the food away was increased and they looked for an alternative.
Driven to save money, it became cheaper to send food closer to "use by date" in their own refrigerated trucks to Food Banks where charities etc can collect abs distribute the food.
Our two largest supermarket chains both acted at about the same time. Massive change. All driven by conformist wanting to save money. There is hope.

I volunteer for a small church with a daily food bank distribution in Henderson, NV. We pick up the past sale dated food, dented cans and ripe produce from several stores in the Valley on a daily basis. We feed up to 500 or more people a day. None of the food goes to waste. We are still pushing for some of the stores to donate their prepared meals. It is a work in progress. In the two years that I have been volunteer we have added 8 additional stores to our daily pick up. We have even stopped during our pick ups to give food to someone who was homeless and let them know where they can go to get food daily so they do not have to starve.

Here's my problem: it to appears that the dumpster diving results in hoards of carbohydrates and sugar (fruit), a recipe for diabetes if you aren't cycling hundreds of miles a day … Where's the protein?

Elizabeth Dent I looked this up, because i know more restaurants, especially, are throwing out food that otherwise would be perfectly fine to eat. Apparently, despite the law, it does not trump local health regulations, so into the dumpster it goes.

A lot of the food is tech expired even though it is still good. I know, at least around here, food banks are requite to dispose of anything once it reaches the expiration date. If they don't and distribute they can get shut down. I agree that the amount of waste is ridiculous when so many people are starving. I wonder what the laws would be to have an organization that recovers food and distributes like this guy does. I know you can't get in trouble to recover and privately give to a few individuals. But what about on a mass scale? I don't understand what the issue would be as long as there is a full disclosure as far as the food being recovered and the people are taking it of their own free will.

Carrie Moyer I'm not sure what state you're in, but the great thing is, by partnering with an agency like Food Lifeline (here in WA and other states), restaurants indeed can donate that unused food so that it can go to non-profits in the area. Both parties (those donating, and those receiving) get thorough training, and the recipients pick up the food so that it's less of a burden to the restaurant. Our agency picks up from a catering company at a Seattle College, but I know of multiple area restaurants that take advantage of programs like this, and it's all supported by the local government…

Debbie Batbrain I agree with Maria, that's really not ok for ANY food bank to offer or leave out any moldy or obviously rotten/damaged canned goods. Even food banks have certain laws and regulations they have to follow. I'm sorry to hear that…

It's really (sadly) an issue of lack grocery store's lack of education on the matter, as they ARE covered against liability per federal law. Sometimes it just takes some outreach from a local organization who's knowledgeable and can convince the manager that it's ultimately better for them in the long run (lower garbage rates).

They also had rotted and very molded veggies and fruit in the refrigerator. It made me feel very humiliated that they thought I would or should accept bad food. It was hard enough to have had to walk through their doors in the first place. Still it was there when I needed them.

The "Good Samaritan" law cited says food that "meets all quality and labeling standards imposed by Federal, State, and local laws"

I owned and operated my own natural foods restaurant. They are health codes about how long food has been held, and when it is no longer able to be able to be served or sold. If the health code says that you can't sell or serve than the quality does not meet the law listed above, to qualify for donation.

There is a reason for this law. Companies get a tax deduction for food they donate to shelters. It would not be right for those companies to give rotten food to those in need and claim the deduction for the food.

While I would certainly eat the food that has expired on the steam table in my restaurant, having watched it through the whole process, I can not sell, serve it, or donate it to the general public without risking a health code violation.

(Also sometimes food is thrown in the dumpster because something terrible happened in the kitchen. Maybe a clumsy kitchen worker accidentally spilled cleaning fluid into it. Our friend here is taking a risk. I would rather he came into my restaurant so that I could serve him natural healthy food I was proud of. But of course, that would mean paying me for my labor, and the ingredients I purchased out of my pocket.

This is really unbelievable to know that there are families out there everyday with not enough money to buy food. People stealing food. People just going hungry because they don't have food. People fighting because their loved ones used money for food on other things such as drugs/gambling and stores are throwing this good food away because of FDA dates I'm sure. Cant sell it give it away

alot of people do suffer, but intelligence is a factor. Weither you're on top or not, it is survival of the fittest, be it poor or rich in today's time and standart, the wisest of the bunch will make it… the rest, well, that,s where evolution steps in.

Maria Town Well they have to keep clean, and the rest is just exagerrated "bullshit". It's not cause it happens once that it's an ongoing trend. Ive been in really, really poor areas, so dissolute and drug infested, even you'd shit the walls, and none of what you say is true. Just some made up non sense from crazy aunts running coffey shops. Understanding is travelling and travelling is understanding.

have dumpster dived plenty times for anything from used furniture to records (yes old 60-70's records), unopened food and more … and we have 3 furbabies at home so as long as it doesn't contain onion/chocolate or things harmful to them they are our 'food dumpsters' for leftovers we don't want so its not wasted

Thank you so very much for doing this! I live with a group of native americans in the high Nevada desert in the 70s and we had an agreement with the supermarket 30 miles away to go retrieve their throw-aways. At first I thought this was "sick" but then i experienced the most amazing understanding of how much we waste. I so appreciate you putting this information "out there" for everyone to learn and acknowledge this tremendous loss that could so easily and readily be a gain.

simplifying our diets…. i eat weeds, fresh greens that i grow and wild harvested fruit etc, plus starchy roots i grow (on community land or shared plots at cty garden), supplemented with farmer s market bought fresh veg (very few as i grow most) and consume way less than ever before! Happy, healthy… abundance is everywhere when u have the eyes to see it 🙂 Enjoy free food…

God bless you all for wamting to help. I run a food pantry 6 days a week. I think more of them should be opened. We are all in this together. Ask around in your area and get one started. Uour state run food bank can help. We pass out thousands of pounds of food a week. I bet some of you can do it too. Praise the Lord for the doers of the word, and the labourers in the vinyard.

It is all a money mechanics problem. We have the technology to easily feed everyone in the world, but this is not being done b/c there is no profit in it. That is the truth of the monetary system we live under. We cannot change this unless we change the system. Check the venusproject.

Jennifer, your "The cosy if…" was impossible to understand, until I finally figured it out to be: The cost of.
And the change you talk about is not happening.
It's just a publicity stunt.
I know, I see OzHarvest rarely pick up 3 packets of cereal, and I find a hundred packets of food in their bin at the same time.
Have any more adult stories to tell?
Hopeless.

I will join you! Come to Clarion, Pa lets dumpster dive! I created http://www.angelisticneeds.com and hoping to get food from stores to give out to those in need…. I will be doing up my own liability waiver form for people to sign and understand the food maybe out dated or no good. This way they can't sue me or the store the food came from.

I love your inspiring work in the world! It caught my attention because I have recently moved back to my hometown. I can afford food, but I know what a dumpster full of food looks like, not from any grocery store but from the local FOOD BANK! I've been able to eat practically for free for the past couple months on rescued organic produce. I'd love to encourage my grocery stores to DonateNotDump, but I know what the Food Bank's Dumpster looks like too. If you're ever in Seattle, I'd love to connect 🙂

I knew someone who worked in a fine dining restaurant as a waiter. The employees were not allowed to have any leftover cooked food, nor was it used or donated. It upset him to think of all the food that ended up in dumpsters at the end of each day. This is food that was cooked and never purchased. It is outrageous!

A store near us pours bleach in their dumpster to stop people from diving.The waste is mind blowing!! Put pressure of retailers. Trader Joe's donates tons to the food bank & they at least are trying!! Activate!!!

Totally blown away by the amount of good lookng food being wasted. I believe some of the challenges are that since we live in such a litigious society, owners fear lawsuits should someone get sick from something that the business intended to throw away. Restaurants discourage or forbid employees eating "mistakes' so those "mistakes" dont become common place. There has to be a way though. Thanks for sharing and for doing what you are doing. One more thing, remeber the muffin tops from Seinfield?

I have a story.. it's true. In the mid 70s I met my uncle in New York for a visit and to see the sights. We stayed at a hotel across from Central Park. He went out for a walk one morning and came back all excited about where we should eat that night. He then proceeded to tell me that he met a woman sitting on a park bench and they struck up a conversation. She advised him on which fine restaurants had the best food. It turns out she was a homeless woman who eats from the restaurant dumpsters. My uncle expressed some worry upon hearing that and she told him it was fine, don't worry. (Knowing my uncle I'm sure he gave her money ) Anyway, although it was not legal for the restaurants to 'donate' or 'feed' anyone the leftovers, there was this 'unwritten' understanding many of the restaurants went by. The restaurant personnel would carefully package all the viable leftovers into small bags and place them in boxes that were then put carefully and conspicuously in the dumpsters. The homeless could visit after closing hours and find the packaged leftovers without the mess of mixing and spoilage. At that time, with this approach, no one was breaking the law.

This isnt a problem in the USA but in europe as well! quiet a while back I worked in a supermarket distribution center, and noticed that when for example a box of a dozen 1 liter drinks, 1 of those drinks gets damaged or leaks it gets trown into the trash! not beeing send to a food bank, no selling it the their own employees for a lower price , just trown into a trashcompactor! and that happend on a daily basis! such a waste. The CEO point of view was that it is a waste of time and money!

I’ve been a dumpster diver since the 1970’s. Problem is that now the stores have compactors and all the unwanted groceries go in there.
I just pulled out $300 worth of food from a dumpster. Cooked chicken, lots of cheese, radishes, grapes, bread, lettuce, yogurt….the ice cream was melted…,Darn! I remember once a long time ago the Congress was served a big meal from out of dumpsters to make this point but what was done???
I was told that the grocery store had to toss anything that was near or past the sold by date. I just got 4 dozen eggs that were just past the date by one day. Some stores are taking the time to donate to local food box charities. Walmart is one of the biggest problems not to give food away….

Red Tape Laws Regulations. They have to dump (most of) it by law. Or they could be sued if someone got sick. where I live there is a discount store and they have tons of cheap stuff, it is the imperfect ones from the main stores, blemishes, label printed upside down. And also a lot of food that is technically expired. Canned stuff or things you wouldn't ordinarily freeze they put in the freezers to preserve it a little longer. But yeah, I have seen the problem for years. Time to rise up against the Legislators!

Once about 25 years ago, I worked at a KFC. They threw away perfectly edible pieces of chicken and would not let the employees take it home. Once someone came to the back door at closing and asked if we would throw it away in a clean sack. We did and they had a good meal for the night. We would have gotten fired if it was found out. Crazy!!

Letting the stores know you took food out of their dumpster is going to do nothing but convince the store to get locks/fence/compactor and thus ruin it for the rest of us who rely on the food from dumpsters to survive.

Restaurants are NOT allowed to donate food – my husband is. Regional director for a large chain of buffet restaurants; they have tried multiple times to donate the food that will
Be trashed but health department regulations create such a liability it would put them out of business if even one person got sick
And blamed the donated food. Do you realize that if an unsupervised kid goes to a buffet
style restaurant and touches, for example, a slice of pizza with his or her hands, health and food safety regulations dictate that the entire pizza be discarded? Governmental regulations have fostered the appalling waste of food.

actually they are not bound, but are in fact protected…….i learned that when i learned about foodrescue.net…….you can help schools and restaurants in your own area donate their food waste to local shelters. 🙂

Restaurants are ABSOLUTELY able to donate leftovers. I worked at an Outback Steakhouse and we donated the soup and mashed potatoes at the end of the day. But it's a pain in the butt. Most servers found it easier to throw it away than to put it in the special bag and label it. Then you have to have special refrigerator space in a green tub for anything that gets donated. Our local women's shelter came to pick the food up. But other places want you to bring it to them. Now the restaurant is paying for that to happen. It's just too expensive to donate.

Hello to everyone.This is Ja'Naan.I read about Rob Greenfield. Hats off, sir! In case U didn't know. I represent,e Jazz Collaborative (AKA, "JC",) which brings awareness to the education, health,wellness and environmental concerns in neighborhoods and communities thru culture and its arts.This is inclusive of food deserts that are in dire need of access to the purchase of and or donation of food with nutritional value to everyone. Recently,while grocery shopping one day I observed food being discarded.at the end of a work day. It was of great concern to the Jazz Collaborative's mission that this food was not being made available to those in need, but was simply thrown away.Count the JC in towards the solution to food deserts and bringing awareness to the need to feeding those less fortunate. An encore performance when it comes to a nutrional meal everyday is being planned. Look for The "Bread In a Basket" Event A collaboration of non-profits, musicians, artists, green gardens, public policy and social conversation this summer. Giselle,(Changes for Humanity)Thanks so much for sharing. Here's to Livin the "J" life.

Let's ask ourselves if we have tossed a (BHP laced) plastic water bottle in a recycling bin recently? Knowing damn well that only 20% of plastic water bottles are recycled! How about plastic straws, bags, appliances, lunch containers, anything and everything plastic, which will still be lingering in our landfills and/or our oceans long after we're dead. Outta sight, outta mind. Are you guilt free? 100?

How about electronic devices? How many of us have to buy the lastest cell phone, electonic device, useless kitchen appliance or an upgraded flat screen 'cause … it's new? Right! Where did your old device/appliance/tv end up? "I recycled it", is your probable response, all the while knowing that your junk is being dumped on the shores of some impoverished 3rd world country and that the leeching sludge from your 'over indulgence' ends up in some kids drinking water. How many cell phones have you purchased for you and the kids in the last 10 years? How many pre-2000? Where did the old ones end up?

Every caterer and restaurant manager/owner knows that the typical (not always) is to prepare more (not less) food for paying customers. Our caterer at our wedding advised that they will prepare 10% MORE than what we had planned for due to the 'surprise factor'.

Many of the items displayed in this article are veggies, frozen pizzas(?) and other foods that have reached their shelf life (a gov't induced scam) and can not be sold. Notice that the bananas are not green. OUR SOCIETY HAS BEEN CONDITIONED to buy fresh, pretty veggies/fruits … which is why we buy the freshest bread (only) and why over 50% of the food in the pics in this article … are breads! Do YOU ever check the best before dates? Yep, you do!

I don't see any canned goods being layed out in these photos. Why? Because canned goods typically have a much longer shelf life and nobody ever got sued for eating stale dated beans. Talking about beans, the often referred to, 'Good Samaritan Act' doesn't amount to a hill o' beans if you are a restaurant owner and your compassion to a homeless person results in that person becoming violently ill. We live in a litigeous society where businesses get sued because the coffee is too hot! Don't believe it? Try Google.

I can go on and on about all of the self righteous comments posted here (not all) by those who make themselves feel good by being utterly aghast at the food waste. But look in the mirror people and ask yourself this…